Today is the day for primary elections in seven states including Montana. What is going on here as part of this election cycle, is likely a precursor to what we can expect in November for the midterm elections and, certainly, for the presidential election in 2024. Two things are very apparent. First of all, “Big Money” is pouring into little old Montana as a result of the infamous Citizens United v Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision which allows SuperPACs and corporations to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money on elections. Secondly, the continuing propagation of ‘The Big Lie’ about the 2020 presidential election is having an affect on the elections in Montana, in spite of the fact that Trump won Montana by 16 points and the Republicans virtually swept all state wide offices. There has been a lot of focus on the plague of gun violence as a threat to our country of late, but I would argue that ‘Big Money’ and ‘The Big Lie’ are a far bigger threat to our country and our democracy than the insidious gun violence.
It is very clear that Ryan Zinke, the former Secretary of the Interior, under Trump who was forced from office after numerous ethics investigations is being backed by a lot of Republican dollars coming from somewhere. He is clearly outspending his Republican challengers on media buys in the hopes of flooding the airways and essentially buying this election. In the short time I have been writing this, there have been no less than four televised ads touting Ryan Zinke for the Republican nomination for the newly created House seat in Montana. This has been a daily occurrence for at least for the last two or three weeks. And remember, this is just the primary. One can only imagine what will happen come November.
The precedent is well established here in Montana. Our current Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, our junior senator, Steve Daines (Rep), and our existing House Representative, Matt Rosendale (Rep) are all people who are not native Montanans, who moved here with large political dollar backing and used that to win elections. I would argue that the Citizens United decision was a huge factor in the success of all of these individuals and will, no doubt, be a big factor if Ryan Zinke wins.
As I stated, Trump won Montana by 16 points and the Republicans virtually swept the ticket on statewide offices in the last election. And yet, there has been a contingent of Republicans in the state legislature who have been beating the drum about election security ever since the 2020 elections. There has been ZERO evidence of any voter fraud in Montana at all but the Republican-controlled legislature passed a number of laws about ‘election security’ which basically made it more difficult for people to vote.
In this morning’s paper, there is an article with the headline, “State election officials increasing security for primary.” The lead paragraph reads, “Frustrated county election administrators in Montana are increasing security for Tuesday’s primary election while the state’s commissioner of political practices says misinformation about election security is eroding people’s faith in democracy.” No shit! That is exactly the purpose behind ‘The Big Lie.’ And it’s obviously working!! That should scare the crap out of everyone.
Election officials here are increasing the presence of law enforcement personnel around polling places, hiring private security guards and installing cameras at some locations. This is unprecedented, particularly in a bright red state like Montana. Unfortunately, this is all part of the long game leading up to the 2024 elections. This is not an accident. This is by design.
The more distrust that Republicans can instill about the election process, the easier it will be to actually accomplish some of the things they discussed and tried in a kind of half-assed manner in 2020. You remember – create a narrative so that if the ‘preferred’, i.e., Republican candidate doesn’t win, the state-controlled Republican legislature will be able to simply override the will of the electorate because of ‘election fraud’, and put forward their own slate of electors for the Electoral College. That’s the plan and everything that is going on now is simply laying the groundwork for that to happen.
Right now, American democracy is kind of like the frog that is placed in a pot of cold water on the stove. The stove is turned on and the water starts to heat very slowly so the frog is perfectly content to just swim around in ignorant bliss. Sooner or later, the water gets so hot that the frog realizes something is wrong and begins to panic, but by that time, it is too late and eventually the frog dies in the boiling water. That is exactly what is happening to our democracy. And if you think that’s not true, I suggest the following article:
The GOP drive to install thousands of poll workers sets off alarms – CNNPolitics
That’s how I see it from my lily pad. Ribbit! Ribbit!